Smooth Love Potion (SLP) price is up 24%: why is the Axie Infinity game token rising?

The SLP token has been on the rise today and it was trading at $0.01926 at the time of writing; a 24.17% rise over the last 24 hours.

Its trading volume stood at $1,262,461,511 after a 136% rise in the last 24 hours.

Why is SLP token price rising today?

The main reason why the price of the SLP token is on the rise is the looming reduction of SLP token supply by Axie Infinity.

Some may ask how the two (Smooth Love Potion and Axie Infinity) are connected. But here is how.

Smooth Love Potion (SLP) are earned by winning competitions on Axie Infinity, which is metaverse blockchain that allows gamers to play games and also earn as they play.  

Axie Infinity players collect, breed, raise, battle, and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) based creatures called ‘Axies’. Players earn Smooth Love Potion (SLP) tokens as rewards and the SLP tokens can be redeemed later to breed new ‘Axies’ creatures.

SLP tokens are different from AXS, which is the cryptocurrency used for transactions within the Axie Infinity ecosystem.

Axie Infinity developers to reduce the SLP token supply

Axie Infinity developers want to make SLP tokens scarcer by implementing changes that will rebalance the ecosystem.

The team had this to say about the issuance of Smooth Love Potion (SLP) tokens:

“The daily quest, in principle, was great to encourage people to play every day, but it’s now become a mass emission mechanism for SLP. By removing the daily quest, we can reduce issuance by around 45 million SLP per day.”

The developers described this as a “painful medicine,” that will be necessary for the future progress of the game. If implemented, the supply of SLP tokens is expected to drop by up to 56%, as the developers stressed that:

“The Axie economy requires drastic and decisive action now, or we risk total and permanent economic collapse. That would be far more painful.”

The team wants to create a $6 million prize fund and make changes in its reward structure.

In season 19, Axie Infinity gave 3,000 AXS to the best player on the leaderboard. The reward has increased to 117,676 for the top 300,000 players in the next season.

The team concluded by saying:

“Put simply, we’ve prioritized growth and onboard millions. Without this approach, Axie would likely have remained a small, niche game with a few thousand players.” 

During the past several days, the price of Axie infinity token (AXS) has also as the general crypto market recovers. Its current price level is 30% higher than what it was at the end of January.

After the news of SLP reduction, the SLP price surged by more than 40% before retracting to its current price.

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Globalblock partners Premier Sports Network to promote crypto adoption in global sports

  • GlobalBlock becomes Premier Sports Network (PSN)’s official digital asset partner

  • The collaboration will see GlobalBlock get access to leading sports personalities and clubs, with an excellent opportunity to promote the adoption of crypto in the sports industry.

GlobalBlock UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Limited, has announced a partnership with the leading sports platform Premier Sports Network (PSN), with the goal of promoting the digital asset space within the global sports industry.

A press release shared with CoinJournal on Tuesday says that GlobalBlock UK is now the official digital assets partner of PSN.

The deal will see the UK-based crypto brokerage service provider get exclusive access to sports leaders from across the world.

Of particular note will be the massive exposure and collaborations GlobalBlock will get from its interactions with the English Premier League (EPL) and Premiership Rugby, the company said in the statement.

Promoting crypto adoption and education

GlobalBlock’s head of partnerships Ben Small noted that the sports industry is seeing increased adoption of crypto for payments. He pointed to the rising number of clubs, players, and companies paying salaries, or penning sponsorship deals in cryptocurrency as a “tremendous opportunity” for growth.

This is a very exciting deal for us and we are delighted to be PSN’s official digital asset partner. We see this as a tremendous growth opportunity for GlobalBlock, not only to capitalise on the increasing trend of adoption of crypto within sports, but to provide education to PSN’s stakeholders,” Small added.

Kai McKechnie, head of marketing at PSN said the partnership will help enhance crypto education.

The lack of crypto education and its regulation within the sports sector are key areas that need to be addressed and in partnership with GlobalBlock we will support the industry with a trusted service,“ McKechnie said.

The partnership will allow GlobalBlock UK to work with PSN on several projects, including referrals to sports clubs and educational workshops. The digital asset firm will also feature in PSN’s magazine and newsletters.

GlobalBlock Limited was established in 2018 and is registered in the UK as a crypto asset business. The company, which provides execution trading and safe custody services to individuals and institutions, has applied for full licensing from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

The EPL has increasingly seen clubs look at the potential use of crypto in their business, with moves into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and fan tokens already taking root.

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The Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) debuts on Nasdaq

  • The WGMI exchange-traded fund will invest in companies with 80% of revenue from BTC mining.

  • The fund includes 5 Bitcoin mining companies with 90% renewable energy use.

The Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) has made its debut on the Nasdaq stock market, presenting investors with yet another opportunity to gain exposure to crypto via investments in the stocks of companies in the Bitcoin (BTC-USD) mining industry.

The actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF) trades under the ticker symbol WGMI.

While the fund does not involve direct investment in cryptocurrencies, its holdings are in crypto mining companies with at least 50% of profits derived from Bitcoin mining.

The investment is also put in crypto-focused companies whose operations are in the production of mining hardware and software, or those that specialize in offering crypto-related services to Bitcoin miners.

Invest in regulated Bitcoin mining companies

WGMI comes with a total expense ratio of 0.75%, with initial investments in top BTC mining firms and providers.

These include Argo Blockchain,  Bitfarms,  CleanSpark, Marathon Digital Mining, Stronghold Mining, Riot Blockchain and Hive Blockchain. Other firms in the investment are Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Nvidia Corp and Samsung Electronics.

Commenting on the companies included in the ETF weighting, Valkyrie CEO Leah Wald noted:

These companies are fully regulated the same as any other publicly traded company, and offer investors yet another avenue to gain indirect exposure to the digital asset space.

WGMI portfolio accounts for companies with 77% renewable energy use

Bitcoin mining is a multi-billion industry and its growth has seen several top companies around the world look to tap into the revenue stream, bringing into the ecosystem investors who find opportunities in sectors such as oil and gold.

Over the years, Bitcoin miners have moved to use green energy sources like wind, solar, and hydroelectric, cutting on fossil fuels and increasingly relegating the debate on Bitcoin’s massive energy consumption to the background.

Valkyrie said the WGMI portfolio utilises 77% renewable energy, adding to the positive outlook likely to pull in environmentally-conscious investors. The top five companies in the portfolio have a 90% renewable usage, Valkyrie noted in a factsheet.

Where can you buy the WGMI ETF?

According to Valkyrie, the ETF, as with others offered by the company, are available via several providers. You can access the fund at Charles Schwab, E-Trade, Fidelity, Interactive Brokers, Robinhood and TD Ameritrade among others.

Image source: Valkyrie

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Bitcoin price: Analyst highlights next steps for BTC if this level turns into support

  • Crypto trader and analyst Rekt Capital says the 200-day EMA is a key level for bulls, currently around $47,000.

  • Data from CoinGecko shows Bitcoin reached a high of $45,300 on Tuesday before retreating sharply to the $43,400 area.

Bitcoin (BTC) has retreated from its intraday highs of $45,300 reached on Tuesday and is currently hugging the area at around $43,450. The bounce low has seen the momentum seen since the weekend look to slow down.

However, with sentiment bullish about the flagship cryptocurrency’s short-term price movement, crypto analyst Rekt Capital says another melt-up is likely.

He says the BTC/USD pair is eyeing a key level, which if reached and turned into support, would suggest the outlook from long-term investors has shifted positive. The optimism could be a catalyst for further buying, likely aiding bulls push for the elusive breakout to the psychologically important level at $50,000.

Here’s what the pseudonymous analyst noted as BTC price flirted with resistance around $45,300:

BTC is slowly approaching the 200-day EMA (black) Flip the EMA into support and this will be an indication that long-term investor sentiment is shifting back to being bullish on Bitcoin.

He shared the chart below, which shows Bitcoin’s recovery after last month’s rout and the potential for a breakout to $47,000.

Chart showing BTC rebound towards the 200 EMA. Source: Rekt Capital on Twitter.

This level represents the 200-day exponential moving average, which Rekt Capital highlights as one of the key indicators of long-term investor sentiment towards Bitcoin.

 “The black 200 EMA is a long-term gauge of investor sentiment towards BTC. The 200 EMA currently represents a price point of ~$47000,” he said.

While the analyst is optimistic on BTC/USD, he points to the chart and the 200 EMA versus current price levels to note that bulls might have to struggle a bit before flipping the line into support.

If Bitcoin price turns $43k into support and breaks above the supply zone above $45k, then it’s likely to continue higher with the highlighted range ($43,100-$51,900). 

Crypto analyst Scott Melker holds a similar view and says that the benchmark crypto has “tapped” the zone. He is positive about BTC/USD price above this level.

Bitcoin has also painted a similar recovery as that seen during the last correction (May-July 2021), by breaking higher from the lower Bollinger Band on the weekly log. The last time it happened, BTC rallied to its all-time high of $69k.

Bitcoin price is up more than 12% this past week.

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Ripple (XRP) price up 43% in seven days: here are the factors fuelling the current XRP uptrend

Ripple has shown impressive performance and it is among the top ten gainers over the past week. It has gone ahead to even flip giants like Solana and Cardano as it makes strides toward the top five cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap ranking.

Ripple (XRP) is currently trading at $0.8519 after registering a 9.05% today. It has a trading volume of $5.5 billion in the last 24 hours.

Reasons behind Ripple (XRP) price surge

Before delving into the reasons as to why the Ripple price is surging, it is important to first explain what Ripple is for those who may not be familiar with it.

In a nutshell, Ripple (XRP), commonly just referred to as XRP, is the native token of the RippleNet digital blockchain-based payment platform that was developed by a company called Ripple.

Now let’s can get into why the price of XRP is surging.

One of the reasons for the current uptrend in Ripple price is the overall performance of other cryptocurrencies as the crypto market tries to recover from the recent plunge. The overall crypto market cap has risen by more than $2 trillion over the past week with Ethereum and Bitcoin soaring above $3,100 and $44,000 respectively.

As a result of the rising crypto prices, investors have become more comfortable with cryptos.

Ripple vs. the US SEC court case

The other reason behind the current Ripple price surge is the ongoing Ripple vs. the US SEC court case that was filed in December 2020.

Recently, Judge Analisa Torres ordered the unsealing of the three documents in the case after layer John E Deaton said it would be difficult to correlate ripple’s price with Ripple’s announcement and also that prosecutor has to prove that XRP was sold in the US.

John said:

“It will be near impossible to prove any real correlation between #XRP’s price and public announcements by @Ripple (ie partnerships). The SEC must also prove Garlinghouse and Larsen sold #XRP in the USA.”

Analysts believe that the case might be concluded by April 2022 and any positive outcome in favor of the Ripple is likely to result in a huge XRP price surge given that the market is already seeing some positive movements in readiness for the case outcome.

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